Patsy Donovan
Patrick Joseph "Patsy" Donovan (March 16 1865 – December 25 1953) was an Irish-American right fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played for several teams from to , most notably the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He batted .300 lifetime and set a major league record for career games in right field, as well as retiring among the career leaders in total games (5th, 1813), assists (9th, 264) and double plays (5th, 69) as an outfielder. Donovan batted and threw left-handed. Early years Born in Queenstown, County Cork, Donovan established himself as the most successful Irish-born major leaguer. He broke into organized baseball in with the Lawrence, Massachusetts team in the New England League. Minor league career In and , Donovan played outfield for the London Tecumsehs of the International Association at Tecumseh Park (today's Labatt Park) in London, Ontario, Canada, where, in his first season in 1888, he led the league in batting with a .359 batting average (according to the Donovan family Web site; however, the London Tecumsehs' official scorer C.J. Moorehead, in a 1903 copy of The London Advertiser, cited Donovan's 1888 batting average as .398), had 201 hits, scored 103 runs and stole 80 bases. His second season with the Tecumsehs was less successful due to a leg injury. On to the major leagues In 1890 he made his major league debut in the National League (NL) with the Boston Beaneaters, and moved to the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in midseason; it would be the only time in his career that he played for a league champion. In he played in the American Association (AA) for the Louisville Colonels and Washington Statesmen; he then returned to the NL in , first with the Senators (the former Statesmen, who had joined the NL in a league merger) before going to the Pirates for most of the year. Donovan starred with the Pirates from through , notching six consecutive seasons batting .300 and serving as player-manager in and . The team was sold late in 1899, during a time when the league was contracting from twelve teams to eight; new owner Barney Dreyfuss brought in Fred Clarke to be manager, with Donovan being sent to the Cardinals. He played for St. Louis from – , sharing the league lead in stolen bases (45) in his first season, and also managed the team in his last three seasons with them. By the end of the 1903 season he ranked among the NL's top ten career leaders in hits and at bats, though he would drop from among the leaders before his playing career ended. His 64 career double plays in the NL ranked one behind Jimmy Ryan's league record. He then played for and managed the American League's Washington Senators in 1904, his last season as a regular. In 1903, he broke Sam Thompson's major league record of 1401 games in right field; Willie Keeler passed him in 1906, before Donovan played his last several games and retired with a total of 1620. In , he became manager of the Brooklyn Superbas, and he made his last few playing appearances that year, along with one more game at the end of the season. In a 17-season playing career, Donovan had 2246 hits, 1318 runs, 16 home runs and 736 runs batted in in 1821 games, along with 207 doubles and 75 triples. An excellent runner, he collected 302 stolen bases from 1890 to 1897, and 216 more after the statistic was revised to its modern definition in 1898. Donovan joined the Boston Red Sox as a scout in , and managed the team in and . As a major league manager, he compiled a 684-879 record (.438) in 11 seasons. He was also instrumental in bringing Babe Ruth to the Sox in through his acquaintance with one of the Xaverian Brothers who coached Ruth at a Baltimore orphans' home. Later he went to the International League, where he led Buffalo to pennants in and , and also managed Jersey City in 1921-22 and 1925-26. He finished out his career coaching High School baseball at Phillips Academy in Andover, where he coached the future 41st President, George H.W. Bush. Donovan died at the age of 88 in Lawrence, Massachusetts on Christmas Day in 1953, and is interred at St. Mary Cemetery Lawrence. References *[http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Columnists/Reaney_James/2006/08/13/1752190-sun.htm Patsy Donovan is remembered for a stellar season with the Tecumsehs by James Reaney, The London Free Press, August 13, 2006] *[http://www.lawrencehistorycenter.org/lawrencestories/Spr03news.pdf Baseball Star! by Brian Sheehy, Lawrence History News, Spring 2003] See also *List of major league players with 2,000 hits *List of major league players with 500 stolen bases * List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs * List of Major League Baseball players with 500 stolen bases * List of Major League Baseball stolen base champions * List of Major League Baseball players with 400 stolen bases * List of players from Ireland in Major League Baseball External links *Baseball-Reference.com - career playing statistics and managing record *The Donovan family Web site *BaseballLibrary - career highlights *Baseball Almanac *The Deadball Era - obituary *Baseball Ireland *Brooklyn Baseball Club, 1907 season photo Category:19th-century players Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Managers Category:Player-managers Category:Boston Beaneaters players Category:Boston Red Sox managers Category:Brooklyn Bridegrooms players Category:Brooklyn Superbas managers Category:Brooklyn Superbas players Category:Irish Americans Category:Irish-American sportspeople Category:Major League Baseball players from Ireland Category:Louisville Colonels players Category:Major League Baseball right fielders Category:National League stolen base champions Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from County Cork Category:People from Essex County, Massachusetts Category:Pittsburgh Pirates managers Category:Pittsburgh Pirates players Category:St. Louis Cardinals managers Category:St. Louis Cardinals players Category:Washington Senators managers Category:Washington Senators (NL) players Category:Washington Senators players Category:Washington Statesmen players Category:Right Fielders Category:Players